Intel CEO confirms layoffs as he acknowledges the need to keep up with pace of change

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich confirmed recent reports of layoffs in a company-wide email sent out earlier this week, The Oregonian reported.

"Yes, we are implementing headcount reductions," he wrote in the internal memo. "With today's incredible pace of innovation and change, companies consistently need the flexibility to invest in skills and experience required in new growth areas."

Krzanich didn't specify the exact number of layoffs, but acknowledged "no more than a few hundred employees in any given site or geography" will be affected by this restructuring plan.

He also reiterated Intel's plan to keep roughly the same number of employees by the end of the year as it started in 2015. Intel had 106,700 employees at the end of 2014, with about half of them located in the US.

Intel's been in a tough position lately. Its core PC business has been in decline, with shrinking PC demand in general, while it's mobile group lost more than $4 billion last year.

Perhaps in a way to hide its mounting loss in mobile, Intel combined the PC and mobile groups under a single division called Client Computing Group last quarter, which accounted for more than 58% of total revenue. As a result, Intel's data center group - not PC - is now the most profitable unit within the company.

It's unclear how severe this layoff plan will be, but it's certainly not the first time Intel had a huge workforce restructuring. Last year, Intel said in its annual report that "restructuring actions that were approved in 2014 impacted approximately 3,700 employees."

Intel declined to comment on this story.